Cleveland County Fair opens this week

Rides are up and the smell of fried food drifts through the fairgrounds, which means the Cleveland County Fair is on the horizon.

The fair kicks off Thursday with Fair Appreciation Day, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 8. Gates open at 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. The fair closes at 11 p.m. each night.

Cleveland County Fair manager Bobby Jenks hopes to continue the tradition as a family-friendly event for the community.

“We just want everybody to come out and have fun,” he said. “We want to be the fun event for the family.”

What’s new this year?

On Monday, Oct. 2, the Cleveland County Fair will offer its latest promotion, Car Load Monday. The day will allow up to seven people to pile into a car and get into the fair and ride as many rides as they want for $50.

All passengers must be wearing a seatbelt, and park in a special area off Kemper Road.

The fair will also offer a lot of new features for kids, Jenks said. Highlights include an expanded ‘Kiddie Land’ with more rides, a new kids’ area at the barn and a new milking cow.

Jenks said the goal of the fair is to always make sure children have new and exciting features to keep them entertained year after year.

“You’ve got to have more different stuff for the kids,” Jenks said. “You can’t just do the same all the time. You’ve got to change.”

Expecting big crowds

Fair attendance usually hits between 170,000 and 180,000 on a good year, according to Jenks.

Days of bad weather have knocked those numbers down the past two years, but fair officials hope to hit new heights in 2017. Fair attendance topped out at 184,353 in 1994.

“If the weather’s good then we feel like it’ll be a record year,” Jenks said.

Want to know more?

The Cleveland County Fair offers a handful of promotional days for seniors, kids and college students. For a full list of specials and deals, visit clevelandcountyfair.com.